President Lukashenko: Belarus aims to intensify contacts with African states. In this context we consider it would be quite promising to co-operate with Zambia and Uganda

MINSK, December 16. /ITAR-TASS/. Belarus will expand its diplomatic presence in Asia, Africa and the Middle East and will strengthen co-operation with the Latin American countries, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Monday as he received credentials from foreign ambassadors.

“We are currently progressing to a new stage of co-operation with countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East,” he said. “We hope to seriously expand our diplomatic presence in these regions.”

“Belarus aims to intensify contacts with African states. In this context we consider it would be quite promising to co-operate with Zambia and Uganda,” Lukashenko said, noting that the overall potential of co-operation with these countries had not been used to its fullest extent yet.

“I suppose our priority guidelines at the first stage may be trade and education,” he added.

Speaking about countries in the Asian region, the president said: “It is only our fault that the level of trade and investment co-operation is not high enough.”

Lukashenko also expressed interest in enhancing the political dialogue and promoting economic co-operation with countries in Latin America. He noted that Minsk had a long-standing partner in that region - Cuba.

“We appreciate the traditionally high level of Belarus-Cuba mutual understanding and solidarity,” he said, noting that Belarus was ready to strengthen the trust-based political dialogue and to deepen trading and economic co-operation with that country.